West J Med. 1992 Sep; 157(3): 305-9.

This, that, and the other. Managing illness in a first-generation Korean-American family.

Chin SY.

Department of Anthropology, College of Social Sciences, San Jose State University, CA 95192-0113.

The use of Western medicine and of holistic traditional medicine and healing rituals is common in Korean-American families with a chronically ill member. I present a case as an example of the complexity of health management in first-generation Korean-American immigrants. Immigration and acculturation issues, Confucian-related sociocultural and psychological factors, and the psychiatric diagnosis of Western specialists all elicited family conflict leading to emotional and physiologic distress.